Sundance Film Festival 2016

This year Light Iron has five clients premiering their work at the Sundance Film Festival. Below is more about each film with their screening dates and times.

31

Director: Rob Zombie, DP: David Daniel

Colored by: Ian Vertovec, Light Iron LA

It sure sounds fun: a band of carnies road trippin’ on a sunny Halloween day in 1976—just a freewheelin’, magical mystery tour of good times and better weed. But this here mellow is getting harshed, baby. First, the sky gets darker. And then everything else does, too.

Our huckster heroes are forced to match wits with a fiendish crew of psychobilly fascists who love chaos, pain, and greasepaint. And the audience is up against an equally unpredictable opponent in writer and director Rob Zombie. With characteristic flair and zero remorse, Zombie rips the wings off of his little counterculture butterflies, baring their true, animal natures—not to mention a shitload of viscera.

Like any nightmare, 31 is terrifying because you never know what’s coming next. But here’s a little hint: don’t get too attached to anyone or anything, especially body parts. Those knives are sharp as hell.

Author: The J.T. Leroy Story

Director: Jeff Feuerzeig, DP: Richard Henkels

Colored by: Corinne Bogdanowicz, Light Iron LA

New York magazine’s October 2005 issue sent shockwaves through the literary world when it unmasked “it boy” wunderkind JT LeRoy, whose tough prose about his sordid childhood had captivated icons and luminaries internationally. It turned out LeRoy didn’t actually exist. He was dreamed up by 40-year-old San Francisco punk rocker and phone sex operator, Laura Albert.

Author: The JT LeRoy Story takes us down the infinitely fascinating rabbit hole of how Laura Albert—like a Cyrano de Bergerac on steroids—breathed not only words, but life, into her avatar for a decade. Albert’s epic and entertaining account plunges us into a glittery world of rock shows, fashion events, and the Cannes red carpet where LeRoy becomes a mysterious sensation. As she recounts this astonishing odyssey, Albert also reveals the intricate web spun by irrepressible creative forces within her. Her extended and layered JT LeRoy performance still infuriates many; but for Albert, channeling her brilliant fiction through another identity was the only possible path to self-expression.

Fundamentals of Caring

Director: Rob Burnett, DP: Giles Nuttgens

Colored by: Sean Dunckley, Light Iron NY

Having suffered a tragedy, Ben becomes a caregiver to earn money. His first client, Trevor, is a hilarious 18-year-old with muscular dystrophy. One paralyzed emotionally, one paralyzed physically, Ben and Trevor hit the road on a trip into the western states. The folks they collect along the way will help them test their skills for surviving outside their calculated existence. Together, they come to understand the importance of hope and the necessity of true friendship.

Director/screenwriter Rob Burnett is a clever navigator, steering us around clichés and avoiding nostalgic potholes in this re-imagined road movie. The chemistry of Paul Rudd and Craig Roberts is a delight to witness, and the ensemble cast is funny and insightful as they guide our pair to grow in unexpected ways. As in life, every wrong turn is a surprise and every misadventure a new possibility. In The Fundamentals of Caring, an unlikely gaggle of misfit travelers turns a personal journey into a joyride of a film.

Partners

Director: Joey Alley, DP: TJ Williams

Colored by: Nick Lareau, Light Iron LA

Work and life partners Kate and Leigh share everything, from their apartment to the bar they co-own. When a sex-life slump forces them to reconsider their relationship, they must confront how intertwined their lives have become.

Tallulah

Director: Sian Heder, DP: Paula Huidobro

Colored by: Sean Dunckley, Light Iron NY

Young vagabond Lu lives in a van and is fiercely independent in her hand-to-mouth existence. This daily struggle has become tiresome for her privileged boyfriend, Nico, who unceremoniously leaves her one night. When a chance encounter incites her to impulsively “rescue” a baby from a negligent mother, Lu, at a loss for what to do, turns to the only responsible adult she knows: Nico’s unsmiling academic mother, Margo, who believes she’s the child’s grandmother. Thrown together despite differences in class and worldview, Margo and Lu make a lovable, if tense, odd couple. The two are bound to each other as they tentatively form a haphazard family, though Margo has no idea that the police are hot on Lu’s trail for absconding with a child.

In the winsome lead performances, Ellen Page plays the scrappy, free-spirited Lu while Allison Janney’s Margo is equal parts measured and bemused as their characters wrestle, and often clash, over responsibility, motherhood, and their uncertain futures. Writer/director Sian Heder combines warmth, madcap humor, and a deep understanding of human nature in this delightful dramatic comedy about the serendipitous unpredictability of life.